Note 4 — Introductory material (continued 3)

Makapailu, the mother of Pili who was a great fortune-teller, in a vision saw the spirit of Hoamakeikekula standing before her; and on being asked: “What does this beautiful young woman, whom I have not seen before, want?” Hoamakeikekula answered: “I am your granddaughter who has been thrown away by your daughter Pili. I am the younger child, next to Waikuaala, therefore I want you to come for me. I am in a pile of sugar-cane trash in the form of a taro bulb. Make haste or I shall be devoured by dogs.” When Makapailu heard this call from her grandchild, she rose and started on her journey, weeping. When Makapailu arrived at the pile of sugar-cane trash, she looked it over and lo she beheld a small rainbow in a thick fog, which moved toward her until it stood in her very presence. As she kept gazing thereon, her eyes grew dim and after a while she closed them. When she looked again she saw a taro bulb; she took it up and wrapped it in a red kapa4 and returned home. Upon arriving at her home, she told her husband, Hawaimake by name of what she had done. At the end of twenty days the outside covering of the package was removed and Makapailu looked and saw that the taro had changed and was in the form of a very beautiful female child, one without a blemish and very pleasant to look upon. The grandparents from this time on brought her up with great surveillance under very strict kapu.5 This was maintained until she was twenty years of age, without the knowledge of anybody, even her own parents. After she grew up it was her usual custom to go with her attendant in the woods to string lehua blossoms into leis, without the knowledge of any one. On their fourth day out in the woods to string wreaths of lehua, they reached a section6 in the thick woods, a place to them unknown where the lehua was plentiful. While they were picking the lehua there came Elepaio, the messenger of Kalamaula, the lizard king of Keawewai. Elepaio7 was a bird that changed at times into a human form. It called out: